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Saturday, July 18, 2015

While one AL executive suggested a week ago that the Phillies haven’t yet “bent” on their Hamels demands since Andy MacPhail joined their front office to lead them, two other executives, using similar terminology, now say the Phillies have seemed somewhat more “reasonable” in their recent trade talks, and sources suggest there’s word of some potential progress with at least the Dodgers and Rangers. Phillies scouts have been dispatched to check out multiple ...

Although it’s not much of a move, I can see how Longoria stands a little taller in the clip. I don’t see the change in hip movement. Does anyone else see it?

“In 2013, his front hip would get well out in front of his body,” Parker said. “This position primes the big muscles in his hips and legs to whip the top half of his body to the ball. In 2015, that angle isn’t as aggressive, so he hasn’t tapped into the same muscles to help power his swing.”

The Red Sox have the distinction of being the only big league team in the world that carries a movie man as a member of their regular party. His name is George Murray, and he took movie pictures of the double-headers between Red Sox and Indians at Somers park.

He is doing it for President Joseph J. Lannin of the Boston club, who plans this winter to put on moving picture talks in Boston and the territory for miles around, showing games played by the Red Sox in ...

“There are a lot of professional people in here who have been through a lot, who know what it takes, and who know not to get too low or to press and be upset if we’re behind,” Iannetta said.

“I think we believed and knew the whole time that we were a good team. Guys are starting to play more like themselves, and as a result, we’ve scored a lot of runs lately. We’ll see how it all plays out.”

When the two researchers hopped on a conference call with Bradley’s coaches in early November to discuss their findings, they finally got a sense of the scope of the concept they were developing, and what it could mean for baseball. The coaches immediately requested the results of one player who seemed to struggle at the plate, despite obvious athleticism and a picturesque swing. Muraskin patiently explained the metrics he had recorded, seven data points in all, categorized by names like ...

“They’re way better,” Smoltz said of the Mets in comparison to his Braves rotation, which featured five elite pitchers all under the age of 30, including Hall of Famers Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine. “They’ve got more talent than we could ever have.”

Catcher Kyle Schwarber will be called up to the Cubs on Friday, while Miguel Montero may be out an extended amount of time with a thumb injury.

Montero, who jammed his left thumb in the first inning of Saturday’s 5-1 loss to the White Sox, is to see a hand specialist on Friday. He is expected to miss more than 15 days, so the Cubs decided to go with three catchers—Schwarber, Taylor Teagarden and David Ross, who was activated from the seven-day concussion disabled ...

But he also wasn’t very good at what he did, even with a lack of talent. His in-game decision making lacked creativity. He often appeared unprepared, and multiple players openly bristled at his authority, both veterans and younger players. One of Sandberg’s closest friends, his bench coach Larry Bowa, said as much in an interview with CSN Philly’s Jim Salisbury.

Tom Gage is a Detroit baseball writer who will be celebrated this month into the National Baseball Hall of Fame as the 2015 Spink Award winner, the highest honor in the field. ...Gage is due to give a speech this month during the lavish induction weekend in Cooperstown, New York.

Trouble is? He’s unemployed.

Gage: We used to fly with the team, and now for the most part, you never fly with them, you’re never on the bus with them, and ...

Just two levels shy of the Major Leagues, D.J. Peterson made some tweaks to his swing this offseason to try take those final steps. After a disappointing first half, he was left trying to clean up his own mess.

...

“I think maybe in the offseason, I was trying to do a little too much,” he said. “I tweaked something and built a bad habit and took a long time to get out of it.”

A: I’ve never made any false promises that we were built to win this year. We felt we had an energy and a good makeup. But you don’t trade your closer opening day, trade for draft picks, trade middle-of-the-order bats and expect to win. I won’t lie to fans.

George Perring of the Kansas City Feds has a bat that he cherishes almost above all other earthly possessions…Perring’s father, George Perring, Sr., was a ball player of note in his day and when the old Ohio State penitentiary was dismantled some 30 years ago he procured a stout hickory joint from the prison scaffold on which many an Ohio criminal had gone to his doom.

The elder Perring had the piece turned to suit his desires and used the bat for 20 years. The ...

The slot system definitely removes a lot of leverage for most top picks.

The Diamondbacks have the second-biggest bonus pool, at $12,816,100, to spend on their top-10 picks. The first overall selection has a pool value of $8,616,900. Arizona has agreed to at-slot deals with each of their other top-10 draft picks, except for ninth-rounder Pierce Romero, who received just shy of $130,000 over slot.

That means the Diamondbacks should have plenty of cash to sign Swanson. That may not matter, as the ...

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

It’s as if Preller were unaware of the first rule of Rounders: “If you can’t spot the sucker in your first half-hour at the table, then you are the sucker.” Preller was the sucker. Preller was the guy obsessed with acquiring big names — Upton was the no. 1 pick in the 2005 draft! Kemp finished second in the MVP vote in 2011! Myers was AL Rookie of the Year in 2013! — while his competitors were working the angles. Middlebrooks was a power guy ...

In addition to his pitching, Greinke is known for his exhaustive understanding of and interest in the sport, up to and including preparing pre-draft scouting reports on potential picks. And in a New York Times feature during his 2009 campaign, Greinke explained that he pitched to keep his Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) as low as possible. By that number, which estimates a pitcher’s value based on his walk, strikeout and home-run rates, Greinke was indeed ...

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and Tony Clark, director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, each said Tuesday that the topic would be heavily discussed in negotiations for their next collective bargaining agreement, which expires in December 2016.

“In looking back from the time I played to now that I’m watching what these guys are doing, I don’t know how they do it,” Clark said. “What these guys are being asked to do with respect to games’ start times, with respect to the travel ...

A.J. Burnett. Asked him why he is wearing Batman cleats for the All-Star Game, and Burnett joked, “You don’t know what I do when I sleep.” He continued, “Pittsburgh is my Gotham. They accept me as that guy.” Burnett isn’t kidding—on the day he turned down his $12.75 million player option with the Phillies, he called Pirates GM Neal Huntington to say that he wanted to play his final season in Pittsburgh, and nowhere else. Huntington said it was “almost awkward”—he ...

When the two researchers hopped on a conference call with Bradley’s coaches in early November to discuss their findings, they finally got a sense of the scope of the concept they were developing, and what it could mean for baseball. The coaches immediately requested the results of one player who seemed to struggle at the plate, despite obvious athleticism and a picturesque swing. Muraskin patiently explained the metrics he had ...